Stop
HuntingCampaigns From Animal Defenders of Westchester (ADOW)

We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including
experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

Study: Some deer farmers put ethics on line for profit

From: USAToday.com
March 2014

It looks like a caricature of a deer, this dainty white-tailed buck whose
neck slumps under the weight of the gnarled antlers sprawling from its head.

This
is X-Factor, an Indiana deer that in his prime was worth an estimated $1
million.

His value as a stud comes not from research or the quality of his
venison. Instead, it's in those freakish antlers, the product of more than
three decades of selective breeding.

In less than 40 years, a relatively small group of farmers has created
something the world has never seen before — a billion-dollar industry
primarily devoted to breeding deer trucked to fenced hunting preserves to be
shot by patrons willing to pay thousands for the trophies.

To feed the industry, breeders are shipping an unprecedented number of
deer and elk across state lines, along with the diseases they carry.
Captive-deer facilities have spread tuberculosis to cattle and are suspected
in the spread of deadly foreign deer lice in the West. The Star's
investigation also uncovered compelling evidence that captive deer have
helped accelerate the spread of chronic wasting disease, an always-fatal
deer disease similar to mad cow. CWD now has been found in 22 states.

CWD's spread roughly coincides with the industry's growth. In half of the
states where CWD was found, it first appeared in a commercial deer
operation. Officials in Missouri, Nebraska, New York and Canada said they
think captive deer or elk introduced the disease to the wild. Yet 29 states
and the federal government allow live deer to be imported across state
lines.

"It's totally irresponsible," said food-safety activist John Stauber,
co-author of the book Mad Cow U.S.A. "And from a public health and policy
standpoint, it's insane."

So far, government programs have failed to halt CWD's spread, largely
because there is no reliable way to test live animals. So infected deer may
be shipped into disease-free states, where they infect other animals,
captive or wild. The Star's investigation uncovered examples of deer
escaping farms, shoddy record keeping and meager penalties for those caught
breaking the rules, undermining state and federal efforts to contain the
disease.

Although CWD's risk to humans is minimal, scientists say it's unwise to
allow it to spread unchecked. No human is known to have contracted CWD. But
scientists and government health officials say the chances of it jumping the
species barrier to humans, as they suspect mad cow did, increase as more
deer are infected.

Many in the industry say current oversight is adequate and that it's
impossible to track the path of chronic wasting disease with certainty. Some
say CWD is a "political disease," dreamed up by opponents.

"There is no disease issue," says Clifford Shipley, a deer and elk farmer
who is also a clinical associate professor and veterinarian at the
University of Illinois. "It's only a disease issue because people choose to
make it a disease issue."

In its examination of the growth and risks of deer breeding and farming,
The Star submitted public records requests to all 50 states and the federal
government, reviewed at least 20 studies and conducted more than 100
interviews.

What emerges is a picture of an industry of at least 10,000 farms and
hunting preserves in the U.S. and Canada, a boutique business that's part
livestock and part wildlife and often falls into a regulatory gap. And, when
it comes to hunting deer in fenced preserves, the owners are often free to
set their own rules.

The Star found that more than half the states that allow high-fence
hunting provide little oversight of how deer are killed. While killing of
livestock is governed by humane slaughter rules, and taking of wildlife is
governed by hunting laws, anything goes on preserves in most states. The
industry counters by saying the market regulates itself.

"Hunters don't want to do that stuff," said Shawn Schafer, executive
director of the North American Deer Farmers Association. "Customer
satisfaction regulates that right out of business."

But The Star found case after case of hunters willing to blur ethical
lines for trophy antlers.

Money is another driver. Deer farming offers a lucrative business for
small landowners in rural areas. Their lobbyists and supportive lawmakers
are fighting new regulations to slow the spread of disease and ensure
ethical hunting rules.

Some wildlife officials say, the private deer market threatens the unique
North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, which says deer are a
resource held in public trust for everyone's benefit — not for profit.

A number of hunting groups, biologists and wildlife advocates say federal
lawmakers should stop the interstate shipment of live deer and enforce
ethical hunting standards. So far, 21 states ban importation of deer.

One is New York, citing the threat to its $780 million hunting industry.

"It just didn't make sense," said Bruce Akey, executive director of
Cornell University's Animal Health Diagnostic Center, "to risk all of that
for the sake of moving a few trophy animals back and forth for the
genetics."

Fair Use Notice: This document, and others on our web site, may contain copyrighted
material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners.
We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use
of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law).
If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.